


Sketching in Moonlit Darkness

by rainbowchristy, spaceandvinyls



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Exams, Fluff, Hufflepuff Dan Howell, Hufflepuff Phil Lester, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, Magic, Mutual Pining, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-27 02:24:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20400139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowchristy/pseuds/rainbowchristy, https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceandvinyls/pseuds/spaceandvinyls
Summary: Dan’s whole family are Slytherins, and he was expected to be one as well. But the stupid sorting hat had other ideas. Dan Howell: A Hufflepuff. What a disappointment, right? Luckily there’s a nerdy black-haired boy in the year above him who’s more than happy to supply cuddles and kind words when Dan’s in need.





	Sketching in Moonlit Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Crying. Please let me know if I've missed anything!
> 
> This is part of the telephone fic thingy I decided to take part in, organised by (I think?) @yiffandquiff on tumblr! Let me know if that’s wrong and I’ll change it asap, sorry! I wrote the last ⅓-ish! The first ⅓ was written by @spaceandvynils and the second ⅓ was written by **@dnplegs (on Tumblr)**!
> 
> Anyway, below is what I imagine the prompt to be and it’s likely to be way off the original but I thought it could be fun to do anyway:  
Dan’s whole family is Slytherin and he was supposed to be as well but instead, he ends up a Hufflepuff. Phil helps Dan when he’s crying and the two become friends. In Phil’s final year, they have to work out what they feel for each other and what will happen when Phil leaves for the “real world.”

From the second the sorting hat was placed on his head, Dan Howell knew he was done for. He could hear the hat’s voice in his head, how it repeated Hufflepuff over and over again. At first, Dan thought it was a mistake when it cried the word out loud, but it was true. Dan Howell, the youngest of a line of pureblood Slytherins, had been sorted into Hufflepuff. 

The next day, Dan immediately received a howler from his mother, one from his father, and another on behalf of the rest of the family. He didn’t understand how it was his fault that he’d been sorted into the wrong house. But either way, after dinner that night he went straight to the Hufflepuff dormitories and cried in his bed. Dan didn’t realize everyone had gone to bed until the candlelights flickered down and away. 

“Hey,” a voice said from behind him, startling Dan a bit. He turned around to see someone standing at the edge of his bed with a handkerchief. “Cry any more and you’ll flood the place,” he tried to joke, but Dan sniffed and looked away. The boy walked around to the other side of the bed and sat down, offering the tissue again. “Sorry, I didn’t want to come off as rude. Can I ask why you’re crying?”

Hesitantly, Dan turned to face the boy. “My parents want me to be in Slytherin,” he said shakily. “I’m a disappointment to them.”

“You can’t change who you are,” the boy replied. “Hufflepuff’s as good a house as any.”

Dan shook his head, “Not to them.” Tears welled over his eyes and Dan began to cry again. The boy reached over and pulled Dan into his embrace, and Dan could do nothing else but lean into his touch as his chest shook heavily. “I’m sorry, you probably want to sleep,” Dan said after a while, wiping his tears away with the edge of his shirt. 

The boy took the tissue and held it up against Dan’s cheeks for him to use instead. “I can stay here as long as you want.”

“Would you sleep next to me, then?” Dan asked, and he could hear how weak and ridiculous it sounded. “I don’t want to be alone,” he added quickly. 

“Of course,” the boy said. And although their backs were facing each other, Dan was more comfortable than he ever was next to that boy.

—

Dan sits on the edge of his bed, completely aware that it’s past midnight and he has yet to fall asleep. It’s his first night back at Hogwarts, this time as a sixth year, and his best and only friend, Phil, as a seventh year. He knows Phil fell asleep a few hours ago, but Dan sees him stir in his bed in the moonlit darkness. 

“Can’t sleep?” Phil asks softly after sitting up. 

Dan nods, though Phil probably can’t see it. “Had another argument with my parents last night. They didn’t even walk me to the platform this time.”

Sighing, Phil stands up and walks across to Dan’s bed, where he sits next to the other boy and wraps his arms around him. “You’re here now,” Phil says. “They can’t touch you here.”

“Do you remember when we first met?” Dan says after a while.

“The night I slept next to you because you couldn’t stop crying?” Phil asks. “Yeah, I remember that.”

“Do you think you could do that again? Sleep with me, that is,” Dan adds quickly. He doesn’t feel like crying tonight. Mostly, he’s just frustrated, and over the years he’s learned that being with Phil eases his tension. Makes him feel at home, even when at his real home, he’s unwelcome.

“Of course,” Phil says, laying next to Dan once he gets settled. This time, Phil’s facing Dan’s back, and if they were closer, they would be spooning. Phil’s breath is warm on the back of Dan’s neck, and he places a hand on Dan’s waist. It’s comforting, Dan thinks. Phil’s touch has always been comforting to him, but tonight, he feels himself wanting more of it. He scoots back a bit until he brushes up against Phil’s body. Tentatively, Phil pulls Dan even closer with his hand. Dan breathes deeply, in time with the full movements of Phil’s chest. 

Dan doesn’t know why, but something feels different from the last time he and Phil did this.

He turns around to look at Phil’s face in the darkness. He can just barely see the pale crook of his nose, the soft Cupid’s bow of his lips, and the blue-black hair swept away from his forehead. He’s never seen anything more beautiful.

Phil’s eyes open and Dan immediately feels like he’s been caught doing something wrong.

“You alright?”

“You’re graduating this year,” Dan says.

“Yes.” Phil sighs and moves his arm to pillow his head, keeping the other one rested on Dan’s waist.

“We’ll still see each other, yeah?”

Phil looks at Dan like he might be crazy. “Of course.”

“I just don’t...I want you in my life.”

“I want you in mine,” he says, his eyes softening.

“I’m not like you, I don’t have family to go home to, you know?”

I’ve got you lies unspoken and heavy between them.

“Maybe we can live together after you graduate.”

“You don’t want to live with your family?”

“You are family. And after all, I think it’d be nice to live alone. Without them, I mean. Figure things out. We can figure things out together.” There’s a nervous waver in his voice that comforts Dan. This is as big a deal to Phil as it is to him.

Dan just smiles and scoots down and places his head in the crook of Phil’s neck. Together.

—

It’s winter, and Phil is spending many late nights in the library studying for his NEWT’s. Dan spends most of these evenings doodling on Phil’s legs or using his lap as a pillow. Sometimes he even helps Phil study, listening as he reads things aloud or quizzing him on spells. 

The ache of desire comes like a winter sunrise, slow and cold and hopeful. Things have felt different all year. It’s Phil’s last year, and the thought of surviving Hogwarts without him makes Dan’s gut twist. Phil isn’t like the rest of his friends, how he feels about him isn’t like the rest of his friends. On those cosy nights bundled under layers of blankets, he looks over at the bed next to him and thinks about what he would do if his friend was in his own bed, aching like he was, how they might touch and talk.

Moment of possibility after moment of possibility comes and goes, and when spring comes and Dan sends Phil off to the NEWTs he wonders if maybe it wasn’t meant to be after all.

“I don’t know if it’s technically allowed, but I charmed this pendant,” Dan says, shoving a necklace into Phil’s hand discreetly. “It’s supposed to make little drawings on your skin, wherever you place it.”

Phil’s eyes crinkle with a smile. “Thank you, Dan. And thanks for helping me study and everything.”

“It might not work, but maybe you’ll get some kind of horrible rash and automatically pass?”

Phil laughs and shrugs. “Wish me luck?”

They share one last hug. “Good luck.”

—

It’s a Saturday, so Dan takes a long afternoon nap to avoid worrying about how Phil’s doing. Two hours after falling asleep, he hears the dorm room door close, footsteps shuffling in.

“Oh, hey, Phil,” he saws groggily upon seeing his friend enter the room.

“Hey, Dan, didn’t realize you were in here.”

“How’d exams go?”

Phil sighed and fiddled with his hair. “I don’t really know. Honestly, I don’t want to think about it. Do you wanna go for a swim? It’s really nice out.”

—

It was a surprisingly pleasant sunny day, and they both changed into swim trunks before heading down to the lake. The sun shone brightly and the air smelled floral and fresh.

Dan followed behind Phil as he unbuttoned his shirt and waded into the lake. “Catch me if you can!” 

Dan cried out in frustration before undoing his shirt as quickly as he could and splashing into the lake. Phil had completely disappeared under the water, so Dan just had to stand there, slowly getting nervous as his friend refused to resurface.

Suddenly, there was a splash, and Phil erupted out of the water right in front of Dan, grinning spectacularly. “Thought you were gonna catch me, Howell?”

Dan smiled sheepishly and rolled his eyes before glancing down at Phil’s broad chest. “Holy shit, the charm actually worked.”

“Oh yeah, it was so nice. It felt like someone was just scratching along my chest. It was the only thing that kept me calm.”

He blushed when he noticed the actual contents of the drawing. Love-hearts and little trails of water expanded out across Phil’s chest, and in the center, two male figures wrapped up in an embrace, waves crashing around them.

Hesitantly, he reached out a hand and traced around the doodles. “Have you actually looked at the drawing?”

Phil stared down at his chest awkwardly. “Oh, I guess not. I can’t really tell what it is. It’s like, water and stuff?”

“Oh.”

“What is it?” he asks, like he’s confused as to why Dan hasn’t already told him. Which is fair enough, but Dan doesn’t know if this is something he should voice out loud.

His finger is still drifting over the lines of Phil’s chest, and Phil’s eyes are so blue, reflecting the water and the sky in equal parts, and oh god, Phil’s just taken his NEWTs and he’s about to leave Dan behind for the Real World, and why hasn’t this just happened already, there must be some reason for it, and all the desire in the world is sitting in Dan’s hands and his chest - 

Then Dan steps away slightly and the moment is gone. “Oh it’s - I dunno it’d be hard to explain maybe just look at it in the mirror when we get back?”

Phil gives him an odd look before smiling. “OK.” Then he dunks Dan under the water and they play-fight and swim around until they’re both too tired to think about NEWTs, or graduation, or the fragile golden thing between them.

—

“Dan?” Said boy’s head snaps up to the doorway where his best friend is stood, smiling wide.

“Yeah?” he questions, placing the parchment in his hand on his pillow and turning to Phil.

“I’m graduating.” Phil watches as Dan’s face went from neutral to confused to sad to happy in less than a second. And quickly, the boy is jumping and running to hug Phil.

“That’s amazing! Congratulations, Phil! I knew you could do it!”

“I wouldn't have been able to without your help. That little charm of your’s, it kept me calm.”

“Yeah?”

“Mhmm; it did wonders,” he grins. “You know what else does wonders?”

“What?” Dan asks, playing along. Phil pushes him lightly away to pull his shirt over his head. Dan’s cheeks filled with heat as his eyes roam Phil’s slim body.

Phil points, “This.” Dan’s eyes follow Phil’s fingers towards the rough drawings still on his chest.

“I’m confused. We already established the charm helped, Phil,” Dan laughs. “Are you feeling OK?” he continues, stepping closer to press the back of his hand against Phil’s forehead. “Hmm, no fever. Were you spelled maybe?” Dan wonders aloud.

Phil bats his hand away, laughing. And Dan totally wasn’t watching as Phil’s tongue stuck out in the too-adorable way that it does when he smiles too wide. “This,” he says again, pointing at the outline of two men hugging. “It’s us, isn’t it?” he smiles.

Dan’s blush increases tenfold as he looks away, unable to look at Phil anymore. “I don’t know what you're talking about,” he says, laughing awkwardly.

“OK, sure,” he grins. “What’s with the hearts then, hmm Howell?” he continues to tease.

Dan turns away, rushing back to his bed and pulling open his bedside drawer. Phil watches with a smug look on his face as Dan’s cheeks flare to impossible levels, before he slowly stands and turns to face Phil. “Where is it?” he asks, eyes staying trained on the doorway beside Phil’s head.

“Where’s what?” Phil questions, laughing as he begins walking closer to Dan. “Your little sketchbook?” Phil’s right in front of Dan now. “I must say, you’ve got a great imagination, Dan.”

Dan’s eyes briefly met Phils’ before he looked away again, “Fuck off.”

“Now now, that’s not very nice, is it? I wonder how many times you’ve drawn me, hmm? I mean that’s only one book, and lord knows you go through like one a week with all your drawings. So how many times, hmm? When was the first time you drew me shirtless? The first time you drew me in my boxers? Or the first time you drew me with nothing on at all, hmm? I wouldn’t mind seeing how creative you are with those drawing,” Phil whispers into Dan’s ear, hands on Dan’s hips.

“I hate you,” Dan whispers back because that’s all his mind can think so say with how close Phil is, with Phil’s breath fanning across his face.

“You draw everyone you hate nude?” Phil laughs, feigning hurt when Dan pushes him away.

“So what I like drawing the human body; don’t let it go to your head, Lester,” Dan says back, getting his sass back now that Phil’s breath was no longer against his cheeks.

“Aw, what a shame,” Phil grins, shaking his head with a laugh. “Oh well, I better get going then, see you at dinner.”

“Wait!” Dan calls out as Phil turns to leave. The boy turns back around, smiling coyly. “What do you mean it’s a shame?” he whispers, stepping closer to Phil now. He liked being in Phil’s arms and when he was feeling awkward and shy, Phil was always who he thought to go to first.

“Well, it’s a shame you just like drawing the body and not mine in particular. I was gonna offer to be a reference for you, but oh well. I guess your imagination is more than enough,” Phil smiles, shrugging as if it were a casual offer and he hadn’t just suggested letting Dan see him nude.

“W-wait! I didn’t say that!” Dan blushes, realising what he’d just said. “I, uh, I wouldn’t mind having a reference?” he tries, eyes wide as Phil steps close again.

“Is that all you want, Dan? A reference? Or would you like something more, hmm?” Phil says, smirking as Dan’s cheeks someone turn redder.

“I, uh, um, Phil what are you doing. We’re friends and you’re about to graduate,” Dan says, stepping back to create space for him to think. “We can’t be… that,” he whispers.

“Why not?” Phil questions, sitting on Dan’s bed and patting the space for Dan to sit next to him. He collects Dan’s hand in his own and rubs his thumb over the soft skin.

“My parents, Phil. Besides, I’m not- not-” Dan tries, but Phil smiles sadly and cuts him off.

“Your parents don’t get a say in who you do and don’t like, Dan,” he informs. “Besides, I’d quite like to be, well, that.” Phil suddenly loses his nerve and becomes the shy boy he was when they first met, before Dan had brought him out of his shell.

“You-you’d want to be, like, together?” Dan asks, sounding so unsure of himself it breaks Phil’s heart.

“Dan, I’ve liked you for a long, long time now. I just never thought you felt the same way; heck I still don’t know if you feel the same way. But I’m about to graduate and I know we’ll be friends forever but I figured, why not try to go for something more. I don’t know, we can forget about all this if you don’t want something like that, okay? I don’t want to ruin-” Phil rambles, being cut off by a pair of soft lips.

They kiss for a few seconds, letting it sink in that their lips were actually pressed together. Dan pulls away first, shy but smiling. “Does that mean you want to be something more, too?” Phil asks, fingers against his lips in shock.

“Of course I do, dork. I’ve been pining after you since second year, I swear!” Phil looks shocked at the confession for a second before his eyes soften and he grins wide.

“You wanna be boyfriends, then?”

“I’d be lucky to call you my boyfriend, Phil,” he smiles. And with that, their lips connect again, Phil pushing Dan down onto his bed as the kiss heated.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this doesn’t read too weird considering three different people wrote it. I had fun trying to write present tense but it was a good challenge and a lot of fun actually!
> 
> Let me know what you think! Comments and kudos are super appreciated and always make me smile so wide!


End file.
